


The Frozen Sands

by SongOfAutumn



Category: Wings of Fire - Tui T. Sutherland
Genre: Also epic fantasy timeframe!, Animus relics, Anxiety, Canon-Typical Behavior, Canon-Typical Violence, Cobra is qibli’s Mum remember?, F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, For the most part, Future Fic, Hehehe, Long, Lots of different kingdoms!, Might finish, Might not, No animus tho, Not all relationships are endgame, Pre-existing relationships, Prophecy, Qibli probably had mild ADHD, Slow Burn, Tags to be added, This Is Not Going To Go The Way You Think, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Trauma, all that good stuff, book 10 wasn’t really canon typical, but we skipping the boring bits, did i put the too many tags in tag yet?, except for book 10 (ish), have fun :D, he think too much, i hope this doesn’t take too long to get to the point, if the author is motivated, like events happen over months rather than days, like really slow burn, or something similar, that means long, too many tags, unmotivated author, updates weekly, well im going to now
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:15:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25987270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SongOfAutumn/pseuds/SongOfAutumn
Summary: 3 years after the events of Darkness of Dragons, everything is back to normal.There are no wars.There are no villains.There are no prophecies.And that’s a good thing for everyone. Because Moon knows when a prophecy comes, disaster is sure to follow.
Relationships: Moonwatcher/Qibli (Wings of Fire)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14





	1. Prologue (Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Moon is happy in the desert. Happy with the way things are. But the way things will be?
> 
> That, she doesn’t want to think about.

_Somewhere west of Jade Mountain..._  


It was three months ago that the first vision headaches had started.  


Moonlight shone down on the deserts of the Sand Kingdom, casting a pale white glow over the dunes. Lizards lazed on rust-coloured rocks, only to be disturbed by the beating of wings as two dragons settled down on the cold sand. One of them was pale yellow, blending in with the ground below him. The other was as black as night, with scales that shone like the stars.  


“Look, Qibli,” said the second, leaning into the first’s side. “It’s like the desert has decided to show all of its hidden beauty, just for us.”  


Qibli feigned affrontedness at the other’s statement. “Hidden beauty? The desert is beautiful all the time, Moon!” _And so are you._  


Moon laughed, the silver scales near the corners of her eyes twinkling. “I guess it is,” she said. She’d been alternatively living in the desert and the rainforest for two years now, and had watched the former grow from a post-disaster, fear-wracked nation - shattered by first war and then bombings - to a haven of peace and prosperity. It had been hard at first: the SandWings had been wary enough of strangers of their own tribe, let alone others - and especially NightWings, the ones who had just recently sworn loyalty to a murderous villain. Most SandWings never bothered with the fact that they had been coerced, if they even believed the tales about Darkstalker that had spread around Pyrrhia. Nevermind that the SandWings had their own murderous villains - and had supported them: the NightWings were outsiders, and therefore their crimes were much worse.  


But that was in the past. The SandWings had stopped treating her with outright hostility - though that was probably in part to her relation to Qibli, and the fact that they lived at one of the remote oases - and mostly left her Qibli alone these days. That was fine with her: in the rainforest, she had her mother, Kinkajou, Hope, Peacemaker - even the NightWings sometimes seemed on the verge of accepting her, now they’d had a taste of having their own powers for a while, and especially now that she had been born - and in the desert, well…  


“Moon…” Qibli’s voice gently lifted her out of her reminiscing. “What are you thinking about? Anything I should know?” He smiled at her teasingly, touching one talon on the side of her head and slowly tracing it down the side of her neck. She smiled and leaned into him, letting his wing cover hers, breathing in his scent of hot sun and sand. She could almost feel his thoughts, for once not swirling in his brain, fully focused on the night-black dragon next to him.  


Her.  


“Only of how happy I am here with you,” she replied. And it was true. The time she spent in the Sand Kingdom was the best of her year - and her life. She was surrounded by peace and tranquillity, like the part of the rainforest where she had grown up before the NightWing’s island had been destroyed. Better than that - she had someone to share it with, someone who she didn’t need to hide any secrets from and who didn’t need to wear any skyfire around her because they knew all each other's secrets already - well, most of them - and nothing could get between them.  


_Not ever again_ , Moon thought, as she took a step forward and Qibli went with her, the sound of their footsteps falling in perfect sync the only thing that disturbed the perfect silence of the desert. _Nothing will ever get in between us ever again._ They didn’t even need to talk to know what the other was thinking, now. They knew each other inside and out. _And no villains, troubles, pains can separate us - not even distance._ Even when she was in the rainforest and Qibli was in the SandWing Stronghold - now the SandWing Palace - helping Queen Thorn, she still felt a connection to him, even though he was almost on the other side of Pyrrhia.  


Or a short flight away, depending on how you looked at it. The tunnel between the Sand and Rain Kingdoms was still open, and for anyone who wanted to get to the Sand Kingdoms in a hurry - and didn’t mind the compulsory ‘extremely unsettling feeling’, to quote Queen Glory - it was the quickest way of travel. Moon never used it though - she’d had enough of animus magic for a lifetime, even if Darkstalker was truly gone.  


Moonwatcher smiled up at the glow of the three moons hanging in the sky ahead of her Qibli. They cast three paths of light in the sand - one reaching away into the southeast, but the other two stretching out almost perfectly in front of her and Qibli as if they were guiding them onwards.  


_It doesn’t get much better than this_ , Moon heard Qibli think. She laughed, smiling at him.  


“No, it doesn’t,” she replied, and felt her heart jump as Qibli turned to her and smiled back, without a moment’s hesitation. No matter how many times he did that, she couldn’t help herself - the feeling of having someone who wasn’t surprised when she read their mind was overwhelming. He didn’t make involuntary actions: those little jolts and flicks and the accompanying thoughts that told her she was weird, unwanted, unloved - Qibli didn’t look away when she read his mind.  


She felt her smile come back even wider than before and Qibli’s stretched to match before he suddenly nudged her side, causing her to almost fall over. She laughed and streaked away from him, spreading her wings out until they covered the sand in a swath of shadow.  


“Hey, Moon, wait for me!” he called, but she sped up, forcing him into a sprint to catch up with her. He spread out his wings to match hers and they ran wingtip to wingtip, vaulting over dunes and rocks, but always touching each other, drawing strength from the other’s presence.  


Or at least Moon was. As she ran feeling the sand fly beneath her feet, she heard Qibli’s thoughts, all the louder since she was touching him. _I’m tired - but Moon seems to have boundless energy. All that swinging through the rainforest instead of being cooped up inside Thorn’s palace, I suppose. Not that being an advisor to Thorn is boring in any way…_  


Moon laughed and ran forward even faster, expertly bounding her way up the sand until she reached the top of a massive dune. She spread her wings upward and shot fire into the air, teasing Qibli. He responded by thrusting out his wings and breathing fire too, their flames blazing twin towers of light into the air.  


Moon snuffed out her flame and began to run down the hill, tucking her wings in. Qibli did the same, and they barreled towards each other, the distance between them getting less and less and less…  


And suddenly, instead of sand-pale wings, all Moon could see was sandy ground. As she tumbled over and over down the hill, battling flying particles that got in her eyes quicker than she could blink them away, she caught glimpses of things flashing past - rust-red rocks, silvery yellow sand, and bright flashes of coppery metal…  


_Metal? _Moon thought as she slowly slid to a stop. But there was no more time to think because Qibli was by her side, anxiously reaching for her wrist.  
__

“Moon!” he said panickedly, while his thoughts whispered _Is she okay? I hope she’s okay. What if she’s not okay-_ He started fingering her wrist, checking for a pulse.  


“I’m fine, Qibli,” Moon said, gently pushing his talons away. She rose unsteadily to her feet and felt pain blossoming over her body. “Just a few bruises - nothing serious.” Slowly she stepped forward, wincing at the pain, and climbed back up the sand dune, going faster as she went.  


“Wait, Moon - where are you going?” Qibli asked. He ran to catch up to her, and spread his wing so she could lean against him.  


Moon gladly accepted and pressed herself into him, feeling his wing protectively cover her body. “I thought I saw metal as I fell down the hill,” she replied. “I’m going to find out.”  


“I’ll help you,” Qibli said quickly. _I wonder what it could be - why would there be any metal here? No-one comes this way, at least they haven’t for a long, long time… unless someone flew by and dropped something? But why here? This place is far enough away from anything_ \- Moon stopped listening and began to shift the sands in front of her.  


She felt something cool brush against her wrist. Curiously she reached into the sand and her talons closed around a slab of metal. She pulled it out and shook the dust off to reveal a simple, unadorned band of copper, with a catch designed to snap around a dragon’s wrist.  


“Look, Qibli,” she whispered, and held the band up so that their faces reflected in its surface, polished smooth by the sand it was buried in. Qibli reached for it and she surrendered it to him, gently touching his talons. He turned it over and Moon noticed it wasn’t as unadorned as she had first thought: a tiny, delicate inscription of a… wall? A sand dune? - Moon wasn’t sure, but its simple yet beautiful lines glowed in the moonlight, highlighting its place near the clasp.  


“How did this get here?” Qibli breathed. Moon shook her head, and he continued, “It doesn’t look like anything of SandWing make - if any SandWings were even this far east - and I don’t see why they would be...” He bent down suddenly as if he had noticed something, and came up holding another identical bracelet. “And here’s another - and here’s a third.” He glanced at them curiously, and Moon noticed they made three overlapping circles in his talons. “I wonder if there’s any more-” he started to say before he abruptly cut off when Moon slid her hand shakily into his and grasped one of the bracelets.  


“Moon?” he said, turning towards her. She smiled slowly - _she must still be in pain_ , his thoughts whispered - and gently clasped the bracelet around his left foreleg. Qibli laughed and attached the second on her right. “Finders, keepers?” he said jokingly and went to drop the last into the sand.  


“No, don’t,” Moon whispered, feeling her head pounding. Her head had been hurting since she fell down the dune, but it was getting worse and worse.  


“Wait, why?” Qibli asked, tilting his head concernedly. “Do you want it for if we lose one?” He smiled, inviting her to laugh at his joke, but Moon stayed silent. “Are you sure you’re fine? Moon?’  


Moon shook her head. “I… just think I’ll need it… but… I don’t know why…” She reached up towards her temples, as if somehow she could draw the pain out of her head.  


Qibli frowned slightly and said something that sounded like ‘I’ll?’, but Moon didn’t hear him, and reached one talon tentatively towards the bracelet loosely dangling from his grasp. As he brought it towards her, her mind whirled.  


__I’m sure I need it. But how? Why would I know?_ Moon tried to think harder, but the headache pounded against her forehead, causing her to wince in pain. _Headaches. Pain. Remembering things I shouldn’t. When has this happened before?_ But she already knew. It was the one dark thought she couldn’t shake out of her mind, the one regret that stared her in the face every time she left the Sand Kingdom. A nightmare of falling mountains and ice and night and pain, one she could never leave in the past but didn’t want to remember, that controlled her decisions, her past, her- _Future. It’s happening again and I don’t want it too! I don’t want another long journey of pain and regret and anxiety, endlessly searching for a way to one distant hope…_ she tried to pull her talon back, but it was too late - the bracelet slid forward in slow motion, quickly closing the space between her and it. It paused for a millisecond, teetering on the edge of Qibli’s talons, and she closed her eyes, feeling the kiss of metal against her scales as the bracelet hit them, feeling the storm of visions wash over her and drown her swirling colour and feeling and sound._


	2. Prologue (Part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Every good story begins with a prophecy. But so does every bad one.

_The desert was dull and empty on this night, its shine lost to the clouds coating the sky. Two Sandwings were standing on the darkened sand, staring at each other. The one facing her was old and had an untrustworthy glint in his eyes, the other facing away from her, young and familiar-looking._

_“Grandson. It’s a pleasure to see you after such a long time. I’ve missed you.” The older one hissed, a smile plastered on his face, not reaching his eyes. The younger sighed, obviously seeing straight through the performance._

_“Vulture…” He began, in a tone that Moon knew so well. It was Qibli! But… if that_ was _Qibli, and the older Sandwing was Vulture… What was Qibli doing talking to his psychopath grandfather?_

_Qibli continued: “You don’t need to pretend that you love me and everything is going to be perfectly fine, because it’s not. Why are you plotting against Queen Thorn? How exactly does her disappearance play into your master plan?” Vulture opened his mouth but Qibli shushed him with a glare and kept talking. “Don’t tell me you don’t have a master plan, you always have one.” Vulture looked at him, seeing if Qibli had finished. It appeared that he was, and Vulture answered._

_“I don’t have to share any of my plans with you, Qibli. You left this family. But… if you join me, I won’t cause any harm to come to Queen Thorn - well, any more.” Vulture allowed himself a maniacal smile, and Qibli hissed at him. He continued, “I need you Qibli, and once you have proven yourself to me, then I promise not to hurt your friends.” Vulture quirked his mouth sarcastically, as if Qibli was incompetent for having friends._

_His smile was lost to Moon though. She could only think of the final words: ‘I promise not to hurt your friends.’ Moon felt herself sinking into darkness, the past trying to swallow her up. This statement… these words promised to her not long ago, reaching down to her from a towering form, underneath lying a million deceptions, lies, and unforeseen implications… Moon tried to turn away, but she couldn’t move. No matter how hard she tried, the vision continued to play out in front of her._

_Qibli’s eyes flashed with acknowledgement of the hopelessness of his situation and all the threats that Vulture had made. The implications of that dangerous statement were clear to him, those hidden under the surface of Vulture’s promise: ‘I will make sure nothing happens to anyone you love… as long as you follow me.’. Moon knew what Qibli was going to do. Qibli was going to take the selfless road to protect_ everyone _he loved. He would give up his freedom to make sure Vulture hurt no-one._

_“Fine.” Qibli said flatly, “I’ll join you.”_

_Vulture chuckled triumphantly, and with that, the two dragons turned and flew north, over the horizon._

_Suddenly, Moon’s vision violently changed, blurring by faster, and she didn’t even have time to gasp as colours and feelings and sounds formed in an instant and disappeared just as fast._

_Three copper bracelets…_

_A barren desert, featureless except for a small mound of sand…_

_White, yellow, red, and blue splashed across a surface of grey…_

_A cry of anguish and rage and revenge from a stranger’s lips…_

_Secret palaces of onyx and silver and gold, dusted with snow…_

_Cold breath… a dragonet's laugh… a kingdom in turmoil… war and peace and kings and queens and blue-yellow-black-light-dark-fierce-friendly-hope-hopeless-lostfoundjoypainheregonelovedhatedalivedead-_

_And then, nothing._

_And then, something._

_In a rainforest clearing, a small NightWing dragonet lay huddled on a leaf bed. She was surrounded by a mixture of RainWings and NightWings, staring down at her as she clutched her head in her talons._

_Moon didn’t know what was happening. Why were all those dragons just staring at the dragonet, not doing anything? The dragonet was obviously sick, but then why was she here in the NightWing village, instead of at the healer’s hut? She stared at the worried faces, not understanding, until a large black NightWing - presumably the dragonet’s mother - whispered worriedly, “Nightflower… what’s wrong?”_

_Moon gasped - or would have, had she not been frozen in vision. Nightflower! That poor, young dragonet: born under one moon, blessed - or cursed - with power denoted by the teardrop scales near her eyes. And now Moon noticed them, silver almost covered by black, crinkled up in pain. Moon felt a stab of aching sympathy for her - she had suspected Nightflower might be a seer, as she had displayed no signs of mindreading, but she still had hoped that she might be able to enjoy a normal dragonethood._

_But it was not to be. Moon looked at the faces around her - Nightflower’s parents, an assortment of dragons from the Night and Rain villages - even Queen Glory was there, her usually unemotional scales edged by white, and Secretkeeper, her brow creased with worry. Moon felt scared, seeing her queen and her mother this way - she should have been there! But instead, she had chosen to go to the desert with Qibli more and more, letting badly-written scrolls from dragons who had never had powers do her job. Maybe Moon had hoped- no, wished - that someone else would do it, or that Nightflower would be as well-adjusted as those who had gotten temporary powers from Darkstalker at a much older age - but Moon knew that wouldn’t happen. She had shirked her responsibility, and now everyone was paying the price. She was even a worse teacher than_ him _\- at least he had helped her when she was suffering because of her powers!_

_Suddenly Nightflower stilled, freezing in place. Moon hoped for a second that she might have been mistaken, that Nightflower wasn’t having a vision, that she wasn’t a seer - but the little dragonet continued not to move, eyes closed. The older dragons around her anxiously shuffled around - “Maybe we should go get the stun darts,” she heard one of the RainWings mutter - but did not touch her, afraid they would hurt her._

_And then, suddenly, Nightflower spoke._

_Words of power were drawn inexorably from her lips, fighting her to be said. Her eyes turned to moons and she looked upward, even as she curled over in pain. Each syllable seemed to glow in the air demanding to be read, as if written by stars;_

**_A land at peace; a land at war_ **

**_Three queens rise, and two queens fall_ **

**_To take their place rose up one more_ **

**_But this will come to an end._ **

**_SandWing secrets buried deep,_ **

**_Lover’s lullaby asleep_ **

**_Promises to break and keep_ **

**_But this will come to an end._ **

**_Three things true to lose or earn:_ **

**_Bracelets made for cold to spurn_ **

**_Sanded wings no more return_ **

**_Ic’ed heart’s empassioned burn_ **

**_Unpassable borders crossed!_ **

**_Hidden cities no more lost!_ **

**_Pain and thought and feelings tossed,_ **

**_Past wrongs come to take their cost._ **

**_Eyes releasing silver tears_ **

**_Love lasting throughout the years_ **

**_All those things that we hold dear!_ **

**_But this will come to an end._ **

_The last letters blazed their message on the night sky and then faded, leaving absolute darkness in their wake._

* * *

Moon opened her eyes. Qibli was still next to her. They were safe.

“What happened?” Qibli asked, concern written across his face. _Are you okay?!_ his thoughts asked, and he reached tentatively towards her.

“You seem to be to be saying that a lot lately,” she joked, but Qibli still looked worried. Moon curled herself into a tight ball on the sand. “I… had a vision,” she said shakily, and closed her eyes, almost afraid of how he might react.

“What did you see, Moon?” Moon looked over at him, not sure whether or not to tell him, afraid that if she told him, she would only be causing that future to occur. But the fear in Qibli’s eyes decided differently for her.

“I- I saw… um… I saw you talking to Vulture… about Queen Thorn… He- he was plotting something…” Qibli looked like he was preparing to get up and fly over to make sure she was alright. “but nothing has happened to her!” _Yet,_ she added in her mind, keeping it silent to try and prevent Qibli from running off and getting himself involved in this dark, dangerous future. Qibli seemed to relax, but his eyes told the real story. He was freaking out. His grandfather, the crazy, evil Vulture, was plotting against Queen Thorn, his Queen Thorn. He was ready to go at the slightest notice, but…

 _The prophecy!_ thought Moon. _“Sanded wings no more return!” I can’t let him go, because he might not come back… and I can’t tell it to him, because he’ll freak out even more and then he will_ _go!_ Moon turned to Qibli, pain written across her face. “Qibli... ” she whispered.

“Moon?” he replied, almost teasingly. Moon’s heart ached with mixed love and regret. Here he was, scared for good reason, his queen possibly under threat from his grandfather, and he was still trying to cheer her up. And she was going to have to ask him to do what would be against everything he wanted to do and then leave him. And the worst part was that she couldn’t even explain why to him. She turned to face him, tears welling in her eyes.

“Qibli… I need you to promise me something,” she said, voice shaking.

“Anything,” Qibli said, adding in his mind, _Because I trust you, and I trust your judgement._ Moon felt that unnameable feeling strike again at her heart.

“I know this will sound strange to you, and I can’t tell you why, but…” Moon paused for breath, shifting her wings nervously. Qibli smiled at her, and she continued, “I need you to stay here. No matter what you hear has happened, no matter what you see, I need you to stay. Because…” She paused here, not looking at Qibli’s face in case his expression made her stop, “Because… I think if you do, you won’t come back.”

Moon immediately heard his mind spin into full gear, and she crouched, as if that would protect her from what she was afraid would be in his thoughts. _Oh… Moon. There was more to your vision than you told me, wasn’t there?_ Moon felt rather than saw him stop to look at her, and she pulled herself in tighter. _But… I still trust you. I will stay, to protect you, to protect myself - because I’m sure the reason you have is good enough._

Qibli threw his wing over her shoulders, and Moon looked up at the touch of his warm scales against hers. He smiled down at her, and Moon smiled shyly back. He trusted her, and that gave her courage, courage to do the one more thing she had to do.

“Qibli…” she almost whispered. “I… There’s one more thing. I need to go.” Moon carefully disentangled herself and faced him. Her tail twitched agitatedly, disturbing small creatures in the sand.

“Wait… already?”

“It’s going to be okay,” Moon said quickly. She smiled - she was the one reassuring him now! “I can’t explain, but you have to wait for me, ok?” And without waiting for his reply, she turned tail and launched herself into the air,

Her powerful wings beat the air, quickly propelling her toward the SandWing Palace. She thought she heard Qibli shout something, but she couldn’t make out the words, and she _needed_ to go on. _It will be fine. It will be fine._ She felt her anxiety fading away with every wingbeat, as if she was thrusting it away like the air around her. _It will be fine. It will be fine. He will be fine._ She breathed in deep, and focusing fully on the task ahead of her continued on - to a tunnel buried under the sand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Or maybe they just start with a badly written prophecy. Oh well. Next chapter next week!


	3. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Humdrum is chaos. Especially for a dragon like Qibli, whose mind needs to be challenged day by day, whose own insecurities plague him even now - yes, humdrum is chaos, and not in a good way.

_ Three months later… _

Qibli perched anxiously on his bed, rereading the pile of letters he had received from the Sand Palace. The parchment rubbed against his talons, some still smooth, and some rough with age. His tail swept across a floor unusually clean for this time of year - it wasn’t as if he and Moon left their cabin to fall into disrepair, but the sand had a way of sneaking around even the most airtight of barriers.  _ But since I’m supposed to stay here,  _ Qibli thought moodily,  _ I decided I should at least make myself useful.  _ It wasn’t as if there was much else to do, after all. Usually by this time of year, Qibli would have his talons full guarding Queen Thorn, dealing with the paperwork, and the occasional more exciting task that would pop up around the kingdom. But not this year. He just had to sit, stay, and wait for Moon to come back.

So Qibli had swept the house. He’d polished the floors, and cleaned the windows, and planted more brightsting cactus - just in case. But all too soon he had run out of tasks to do, and instead brooded over his growing pile of letters, confined to their small oasis - well, small pond - until Moon came back.

The letters! Qibli went to the back of the pile, as he had done many times, and re-read the first letter he had received since Moon left. This one was from Queen Thorn, and was completely normal. She had seen Moon leaving - unsurprisingly. Thorn had made a special point of keeping spies everywhere after the bombings to root out other such plans before they happened, a practice Qibli fully approved of. He didn’t want anyone to hurt his queen, his kingdom, and especially not Moon. 

Thorn had told him she was ready for him at the palace at his earliest convenience. Qibli had smiled at that last piece of flowery language, and he smiled again now. It had become a joke between him and Thorn to use strict formality in their messages to each other. He had written a suitably stifling reply, glad of the distraction from his boredom. He’d told her that he couldn’t come just yet, but he hoped he’d be able to soon. That had been when he’d still thought that Moon would be back in a few days, maybe a week.

But it had been  _ months _ . The letters had piled up, and up, and up: two, four, six, eight,  _ thirty _ … and still Qibli did not leave. They had gotten more and more frequent, more and more urgent, more and more dragons asking him: Thorn, Six-claws, King Smolder (he remembered Thorn and Smolder’s wedding - Moon had been there, and they had danced…), Ostrich - even a single sarcastic letter from his mother, though that had been telling him to stay as long as possible. Qibli had ignored them, or wrote back saying he would leave as soon as he could - but Moon hadn’t come. 

And now he was  _ still _ here at the oasis, unable to help with anything, unable to  _ do _ anything except read letters while he sunk further in melancholy. He was confined to this small space by ambiguous terms he didn’t know the reason behind, waiting for months for Moon to return with no idea when - if! - she would. 

Qibli sighed.  _ Well, there’s no point reminiscing about it now  _ he thought.  _ There’s nothing I can do.  _

And Moon expected him to stay. He knew that it was smarter to stay, wait for this to become a real threat, but Qibli knew his grandfather. When it became a threat, it would be too late.

So Qibli sat and waited. Waited while letters filled his drawers, waited while his instincts screamed at him to leave, waited while his  _ grandfather  _ was becoming more and more active again, and Thorn- Queen Thorn’s letters had done everything but begged him to come, to help, to stop his grandfather before it was too late. And all Qibli could do was wait, and pace around a house that had never seemed so empty and boring without Moon’s presence.

And there was no escaping, no freedom, no respite. It was driving him  **crazy.**

And then, as Qibli put his letters away, there was a knock at the door. That wasn’t unusual - every once in a while, the Sand Palace’s mail-carrying SkyWing would show up with a treasure trove of new, alarming letters for him. No, what was unusual was that this  _ wasn't  _ the SkyWing. SkyWing's always landed in a certain way - back legs, front legs, and then their tail hissing behind them like a dragonbite viper. A Skywing’s landing always reminded him of kestrels - striking down hard to trap their prey, the rest of their body following after. This dragon landed front legs first, much more a cat than a bird of prey, followed by their back legs, front legs again, and an awfully familiar heavy thump as their tail hit the ground.

_ That wasn't any SkyWing,  _ Qibli thought.  _ That was a SandWing. _

And worse - when the mystery SandWing walked,  _ he wasn’t a mystery SandWing anymore _ . No - only one SandWing -  _ only one dragon,  _ Qibli mentally added - made that sound in all of Pyrrhia. Because only one dragon in all of Pyrrhia walked on twenty-four claws.

_ Six-claws is here!  _ Qibli rushed to the door, already panicking. The fact that Six-claws - Thorn’s main advisor after him! - was at his very door, having flown all the way from the Sand Palace to his little oasis in the middle of nowhere, just to communicate with him face to face rather than through the overwhelming letters - well, that could mean only one thing. 

Something - someone was in trouble. And knowing his grandfather, Thorn, and the deep, deep  _ secrets _ of the place as he did, someone was in very big trouble indeed.

So he wasn’t surprised at all when he pulled the door open to reveal Six-claws, face as tense as an adder about to strike. Qibli could tell that now wasn’t the time for pleasantries, so he got straight to the point.

“What happene-”

“Thorn.” Six-claws didn’t even let him finish. He paced inside, shutting the door behind him. He didn’t bother to sit down, though Qibli was sure he wanted to - the exhaustion in his wings suggested he had been flying all day, perhaps for many days. Qibli quickly filled up a glass, knowing it would be needed - Six-claws likely hadn’t even stopped for water, and although SandWings resisted heat stroke better than other species, they weren’t immune. 

“What about Thorn?” Qibli asked. He did not doubt that Six-claws would tell him in time, but he wanted to know now.  _ What’s gone wrong? Is she overwhelmed? Did the terrorists make another move? Are the SandWings rebelling? I could help her! I can go- no, I can’t, but even if I can’t go, I can give her advice, right? Or she could come here! I could protect her better than her guards can, she’d be safe her- _

“Thorn is missing.”

Six-claws may have said something after that. He may have asked for his help. He may have told him to wait. Qibli didn’t notice. His pounding heart, his clattering steps, his strong wingbeats as he frantically propelled himself into the air - they drowned out any sound Six-claws might have made. Even when Six-claws joined him, his wings far bigger and faster than his own, he didn’t notice. He was too caught up in his own thoughts to care what the other dragon was doing. Too caught up in the swirling thoughts and memories and visions that filled his head.

_ Where is she? Was she kidnapped? Who took her? My grandfather - the egg - Onyx - the desert - whywhowherehowwhen - is it my fault? It’s my fault - I should have been there - I can’t go back until I find her - I’m sorry - But visions can be changed, right? _

He didn’t even notice when the half-empty glass fell from his talons, shattering on the ground below - sand on sand, moon-bright ice-white fake crystal on the dusty yellow it was made from - not that he would’ve gone back for it.

No. The only thing he could think about right now was Thorn, and how he was going to get her back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Up-up-update! This concludes the stuff I had pre-written (though only a third of this chapter was pre-written). I hope you enjoyed our sandy probably mildly ADHD-boi's perspective. Did I do him justice? Got any criticisms, comments, compliments? Let me know in the comments below! (Hehe, that rhymes!) Next chapter next week!


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